A common fishing rod has a prepreg wound around the body of the rod. The prepreg is reinforced fibers extended in a specific direction and impregnated with a synthetic resin. Such a fishing rod has a tubular structure in order to reduce the weight of the rod. However, a tip of the rod may be made solid to obtain flexibility and to prevent damage thereon when the tip portion of the rod is largely bent at the time of fish bites.
Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. S54-80372 and H9-248103 disclose a solid tip rod made of a so-called fiber-reinforced resin material formed from a reinforced fiber that is (a carbon fiber, a glass fiber or the like) impregnated with a synthetic resin and extends from a proximal end to a distal end of the tip rod. The fiber-reinforced resin material is typically formed by pultrusion.
The above-described prior-art tip rod is formed from a material in which reinforced fibers (a continuous fiber solid body) having a length extending from the proximal end to the distal end are arranged in a longitudinal direction (an axial direction of the tip rod). Accordingly, elongation of the material is dictated by the properties of the selected reinforced fibers. For example, the elongation of the above mentioned carbon fiber and glass fiber is about 1.5% to 2.7% of the original total length, this means that the fiber itself does not stretch so much. Moreover, it is possible to enhance the rigidity against bending but the conventional tip rod has limitations on the flexibility, shear stiffness, and strength against an external torsion force. In other words, it is preferable that the tip rod have an enough flexibility so that a user of the rod can feel and see subtle fish bites as well as an enough strength against a shear rigidity or torsional force. More flexible tip rod made of the continuous fiber solid body can be obtained by reducing the outer diameter of the tip rod. However, when the rod is made too thin, assembling and processing of the rod becomes difficult. Moreover, such a rod may not have an enough strength so that it may be broken when subjected to a shear stress.
The present disclosure is intended to overcome the above problem. One object of the present disclosure is to provide a flexible tip rod that is less prone to breakage and a fishing rod having the same.